Biju Joze

Biju Joze (b.1972, Bangalore) received his BFA from College of Fine Art, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore, in 1996, and a MFA from MSU Baroda in 1999. He also studied in University of Ideas, Cittadellarte Foundazione Pistoletto, Biella in 2000. The multilayered relationship between man and object in the real world is one of the central focuses of Biju Joze’s art. He subjects the original form of an object to several manipulations, playing with scale, function and context. The subsequent narrations are the result of a process of fragmentation and reconstruction, through concept and material.

My work is based on the intermediate-range ballistic missile, designed to carry a payload of nuclear warheads for the Indian nation, and named after the Sanskrit term for one of the elements of nature – fire (‘Agni’) that is also a spiritual symbol.

The long cylindrical form of a missile appears scooped out of a tightly packed body of books, exhibiting various titles selected to satirically approach the subject of war. The fact of the missile’s physical absence from that space is intriguing. The book visible at the forward end reads ‘Don’t Look Down’ obliquely suggesting a warning not to see the misshapen aftermath of destruction. The idea is to present the ominous idea of controlled annihilation and juxtapose its mindlessness with the concept of knowledge and cumulative cultural expression stored in the tomes. The incongruity of the material and the suggestion of the threat posed by the missile continue the representations of my previous work Agni I in which small mounds of brass dust below the papier-mâché missile and on its head hinted at the notion of faking the reality of warheads, akin to using rubber bullets. – Biju Joze